@sellI wouldn't necessarily read too much into specific wording from Chinese social media that has then been translated into english. This is a promotional summary (marketing/propaganda) from a meeting summarizing some core business goals. To say that they are going to be promoting the MABR line of sewage treatment under the Zhejiang Energy umbrella is not to say they are trying to steal the technology. They white label it under their brand, opening up their channels of influence and finances, Fluence gets the benefit of providing the technology and being involved in more use cases. It should be noted that in Hubei with iTEST, whenever they talk about Aspiral MABR systems internally they also call it their own brand/design of sewage treatment, and they have been a fantastic partner.
It is no different to the mobile phone industry. Most Android phones essentially use the same operating system, processor, memory, gorilla glass, shared camera modules, etc. Qualcomm, Google, Corning etc are more than happy to provide these parts into a Samsung, LG, OnePlus etc. We then are sold the phone as a Samsung Galaxy S10. Zhejiang Energy can sell MABR sewage treatment as the Zhejiang Tiandi MABR sewage treatment, as long as Fluence MABR spirals are what they buy use as the treatment technology we should be happy.
The above from Zhejiang Tiandi is similar to how iTEST introduces their sewage treatment as Israeli MABR sewage technology. Can't expect Chinese reporters to know much about Israel or Fluence. On the social media of Zhejiang Energy and Zhejiang Tiandi they have been more than happy to include pictures of them meeting with Fluence staff and the factory and telling the actual story of how they came to be using Israeli MABR technology. If they were trying to "steal" it for themselves they are doing a pretty poor job of covering their tracks.
From the discussion we had in 2019,
the patent that was referenced by
@nequalsone was actually a Chinese patent linked to Fluence.
At the time, I mistakenly thought that ZL201080056908.4 was an obscure reference to the Tiandi patent.
The Tiandi patent application has now been withdrawn, so Hinckley was correct in that it has been resolved.
In terms of the relationship between Fluence and Zhejiang Tiandi, you say it looks promising but uncertain from your standpoint.
However, from my standpoint this partnership is very certain. For me it is a matter of when, not if, further work is announced.
The Baiguo Village 600 m3/d SUBRE plant was only certified on April 7th to be class 1A effluent, and more than 20 villages and towns have appeared to have struck agreements with Zhejiang Tiandi for upgrades. It just depends on when the Hangzhou Government (Housing and Construction Bureau) gives finals approvals and releases funding for that to happen. It is quite a process as they are assessing a combination of 5-7 demonstration projects (2 of them are Fluence MABR/SUBRE projects) from Lin'an District and Tonglu County and using them as the model by which all other rural sewage plants in Hangzhou rural areas should follow. It will happen this year.
